CPS taking custody of baby found in apartment trash

Updated 3:42 pm, Wednesday, February 26, 2014

HPD Investigators walk away with evidence from the white trash bag where a newborn baby boy was found on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. According to Carlos Michel, maintenance worker at The Reserve at Windmill Lakes Apartment complex, he heard a sound coming from the dumpster which he thought is was a cat at first. When he heard sound again, after throwing a bucket of trash in the dumpster, he reached in and pulled a white trash bag with a newborn baby inside. less

HPD Investigators walk away with evidence from the white trash bag where a newborn baby boy was found on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. According to Carlos Michel, maintenance worker at The Reserve at Windmill ... more

HPD works the scene where a newborn baby boy was found alive in a dumpster by maintenance worker Carlos Michel on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. According to Carlos Michel, maintenance worker at The Reserve at Windmill Lakes Apartment complex, he heard a sound coming from the dumpster which he thought is was a cat at first. When he heard sound again, after throwing a bucket of trash in the dumpster, he reached in and pulled a white trash bag with a newborn baby inside. less

HPD works the scene where a newborn baby boy was found alive in a dumpster by maintenance worker Carlos Michel on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. According to Carlos Michel, maintenance worker at The Reserve at ... more

Ricky Martinez, Carlos Michel, and an unidentified worker walk toward dumpster after he was interviewed by HPD Investigators on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. Carlos Michel is the maintenance worker at The Reserve at Windmill Lakes Apartment complex who found a newborn baby. He heard a sound coming from the dumpster which he thought is was a cat at first. When he heard sound again, after throwing a bucket of trash in the dumpster he reached in and pulled a white trash bag with a newborn baby inside. less

Ricky Martinez, Carlos Michel, and an unidentified worker walk toward dumpster after he was interviewed by HPD Investigators on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. Carlos Michel is the maintenance worker at The Reserve ... more

HPD works the scene where a newborn baby boy was found alive in a dumpster by maintenance worker Carlos Michel on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. According to Carlos Michel, maintenance worker at The Reserve at Windmill Lakes Apartment complex, he heard a sound coming from the dumpster which he thought is was a cat at first. When he heard sound again, after throwing a bucket of trash in the dumpster, he reached in and pulled a white trash bag with a newborn baby inside. less

HPD works the scene where a newborn baby boy was found alive in a dumpster by maintenance worker Carlos Michel on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. According to Carlos Michel, maintenance worker at The Reserve at ... more

HPD Investigators swift through items inside the white trash bag where the newborn baby boy was found on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. According to Carlos Michel, maintenance worker at The Reserve at Windmill Lakes Apartment complex, he heard a sound coming from the dumpster which he thought is was a cat at first. When he heard sound again, after throwing a bucket of trash in the dumpster he reached in and pulled a white trash bag with a newborn baby inside. less

HPD Investigators swift through items inside the white trash bag where the newborn baby boy was found on Feb. 25, 2014, in Houston. According to Carlos Michel, maintenance worker at The Reserve at Windmill ... more

The whimper coming from the dumpster outside building 25 caught Carlos Michel's ear Tuesday morning. It sounded like an animal dying, maybe a kitten, but he couldn't tell for sure.

As the sounds grew louder, the maintenance worker felt certain that whatever was making the noises was struggling.

Seconds later, Michel, 51, reached into the blue dumpster and, hunched over, grabbed a white trash bag. He placed the bag on the ground, ripping it open to find the source - a newborn boy, stuffed among trash and discarded school work. His tiny face and hands were purple, his umbilical cord still attached, his body cold. His soft cries were the only indication he was still alive.

"I almost had a heart attack," Michel said.

He discovered the baby about 8:30 a.m. at The Reserve at Windmill Lakes apartment complex, 9988 Windmill Lakes Boulevard, just west of Almeda Mall.

Investigators later located and interviewed the newborn's 16-year-old mother, who admitted putting the baby in the dumpster, said Houston Police Department spokesman Victor Senties. Police released few additional details and said nothing about what may have led the teen to abandon her newborn.

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The mother, who police said attended South Houston High School, was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Pearland. Once she has been released from the hospital, investigators will speak with officials at the Harris County District Attorney's Office to determine what, if any, charges will be filed, Senties said.

"It was a shock to find a human being inside a trash bag," said Michel. He sat in a golf cart at the apartment complex Tuesday afternoon, still reeling from the day's events. "An indefensible baby."

Reminded of grandson

Every morning, each maintenance worker at the complex is assigned to pick up trash in a certain area. It happened to be Michel's morning to clean near building 25. He first heard the newborn's whimpers as he dumped the contents of a bucket into the big bin.

He said he used the bucket as a stool and peered into the dumpster, scanning the pizza boxes, soda bottles and fast-food containers before he identified the bag from which the sounds were coming. As he pulled the bag out, Michel noticed the outline of the baby. The child was upside down.

As soon as he rescued the boy from the trash bag, Michel took off his gray work shirt and swaddled the newborn in it. The baby's dark hair was wet and sticky, possibly with placenta, and his body was cold.

Michel brought the child to his chest, rubbing the baby's back, trying to use his own body heat to warm the boy.

A co-worker then came by in pickup, and Michel hopped inside the truck's cab, turning up the heat to further warm the baby. The newborn's cheeks turned rosy as his body warmed. Michel said he could see the newborn's little chest bouncing with hiccups.

As Michel rocked him, he thought of his own 2-month-old grandson, Gerardo. The baby's whimpers reminded him of the cries Gerardo sometimes made. But not once did the newborn wail. He just lay still, cradled in Michel's arms, not ever opening his eyes.

At some points, it even seemed as though the newborn was falling asleep. Afraid that the child was too weak, Michel poked him to keep him conscious while they waited for paramedics to arrive.

"He heard the cries and took action, instead of just assuming it was an animal and leaving it there," she said, adding that the agency also is investigating the case.

Since September 1999 when the state's "Baby Moses" law took effect, 57 abandoned newborns have been found either dead or alive in the Houston metro area, Olguin said. She stressed that the law - which allows parents to leave infants up to 60 days old and unharmed at a hospital, fire station or ambulance station without fear of prosecution - was created so as to avoid the dangerous circumstances of abandoning newborns and infants.